Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Melbourne’s heaviest funk rhythm section The Putbacks bring
you a twisted and electric collaboration with the legendary Bilal on their new
single “The Ways”. This dark, dirty, post-soul, post-jazz, mystery-cinema
freakout dominated by screaming electric guitar and Bilal’s husky stream of
consciousness lyrics is accompanied by an equally murky video and anticipates
The Putbacks‘ self-titled debut album out in November. “The Ways” is produced
by Paul Bender (Hiatus Kaiyote) and is a hard-hitting, abstract journey into an
alternate reality where The Meters specialized in Sci-Fi soundtrack art and
Dick Dale played guitar on Madlib records.

Bilal has been a household name amongst soul aficionados
since he was an integral member of the Soulquarians collective – a movement
that launched his career alongside those of Questlove, Erykah Badu and D’Angelo
and whose influence is still strongly felt. Bilal is a mercurial and diverse
artist, noted for his wide vocal range, his resistance to being typecast and
his working across multiple genres, “The Ways” being a prime example. Bilal’s
discography is studded with stellar collaborations including Kendrick Lamar,
Common, Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Guru, J Dilla, Robert Glasper and The Roots, amongst
many others.

The Putbacks are a rhythm section. Drums, bass, guitar,
keyboards and percussion. Stone cold pros, grizzled veterans of all the tours
and all the studios. They take their cues from the great house bands of the 60s
and 70s soul studios as film composers from David Axelrod and Lalo Schifrin to
Adrian Younge and contemporary instrumental groups like BADBADNOTGOOD,
Khruangbin and El Michels Affair. Known for their instrumental 7inch funk cuts
and their collaboration with Emma Donovan, the forthcoming LP marks their first
album as a quintet.